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Greetings and thank you for reading this post. my friend's dog and cat have 6 colonozed jars (pf tek) and they all have a slight sour smell to them. Is this normal?? if not, what suggestions to ya'll have for a remedy, or am i screwed? The jars were boiled in a plain canning pot for over an hour and left to cool for 24 hours before innoculation. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Waffles

a sour smell isn't good. are they 100% ready for birth, if so when did u start smelling the smell. try takeing 1 jar and dumping the verm out and smell it then. is it a really potent smell? can you smell it without taking the lid of of the jar???

Sorry dude, give them the old heave ho. I had some jars go bad on me a while bad. They stank to high hell even though the mycelium was still growing. You should really consider using a pressure cooker. Also, it's possible some bacteria got in your spore juice. I think that's what happened to my batch. Next time, pressure cook jars and hose the kitchen down with lysol.

Good luck!

Catzeye

--------------------~It is Green, It Is AquaMarine~
It is Colors I have Never Seen.
I can See Past You
To the White Sands.
Stevie Nicks

I hate to throw them all out, this is the second time this has happened, and all because i cant afford to throw away money on a pressure cooker... does anyone have any ideas of where i could pick one up fairly cheaply??

i can definately smell the sour throuhgh the lid and holes, and almost across the room. can't be good. any advice you can give to a first timer would be greatly appreciated.

hmm, so far, I've made up 27 jars w/ the boiling method and so far not one has shown up with any sort of contamination. Just wondering if there is something in your process which might be leading to the 'invasions'. Can you explain exactly what you are doing to sterilize the jars? I know that a pressure cooker is ultimately the way to go, but it might be worth your while to re-evaluate what is going on.

Throw away money on a pressure cooker? A pressure cooker is probably the best investment you can make for your hobby. What you are throwing away is contaminated substrate and spores i.e money.
Check ebay, they always have pressure cookers going for real good deals. I got a 22 quart for $50 in almost new condition.